Ever since the auction for Omar and Oz’s house aired on The Block, many have accused the pair of ‘cheating’.
Blockheads claim that Omar and Oz – who ended up winning this year’s The Block – cheated by roping in a dummy bidder to drive up the final price of their house.
Omar and Oz have repeatedly denied these rumours and yet, fans still don’t believe them.
WATCH: Omar and Oz win The Block.
So New Idea spoke to the alleged dummy bidder, ‘Mr Lambo’ AKA Adrian Portelli – who works in capital investing and with tech startups – to clear up those rumours once and for all.
“No, I wasn’t a dummy bidder,” Adrian told us.
In fact, Adrian had never met Omar and Oz before the house went on the market; Adrian was put in contact with the boys through a mutual friend.
“So, it was a mutual friend. So, someone reached out to me. And she was like, you know, ‘My friends’ [are] on The Block and you should buy their house,’ and so, she put us in touch with each other.”
“We’d never met. I’ve never watched The Block, so I had no idea who [Oz and Omar] were or what they were doing. But we linked up a couple [of] weeks ago, I went to look at the house, at an open inspection. And then we hung out a couple of times before the auction,” Adrian said.
Plus, Omar and Oz weren’t the only contestants from this year’s The Block that were in touch with Adrian before auction day. A few contestants asked Adrian to come to their open houses, which he did.
But none of the other houses interested him, which explains why he only bid on Omar and Oz’s house.
“A couple of the other contestants reached out to me also… I went and looked at a couple and they just didn’t tick the boxes for me. So, I’m not going to bid on something I don’t want, obviously.”
Adrian also described in great detail why he loved Omar and Oz’s house; again explaining why he only bid on that property.
“It was more the lifestyle, so you got the tennis court and basketball court. The view from [Oz and Omar’s] place had the best view… you got the swimming pool overlooking that view, the high-end appliances that were $250,000 alone just in appliances. So, and it was just that lux interior design that sold me, so that’s what I was bidding for.”
Adrian did admit that he’s been in touch with Omar and Oz since the auction and now considers them friends. He also hopes to work with them in the future.
“I’d consider them mates, yes and a potential business association in the future together.”
Adrian also said he’s still on the lookout for properties since he missed out on Omar and Oz’s house (Danny Wallis ended up winning that auction).
“I’m looking… I’ve got a number of houses around the country, so I’m still, always openly looking for new houses.”
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